Archives > February 2018

There are exactly 21 days left until the first day of spring (but who’s counting) and while you wait for warmer weather, here’s a list of a few parks in Calgary that are perfect for enjoying even when the weather is less than warm and sunny.

Fish Creek Provincial Park

This massive park in Calgary’s south is the perfect destination for a winter jaunt. Some pathways are cleared of snow in the winter, while some snow-covered trails are used by Calgarians for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.

Bonus: from time to time, nature talks are held at Fish Creek Provincial Park. Check them out here.

Dog Friendly: yes, but coyotes and other wildlife are known to reside in this park, so be sure to keep dogs on their leash at all times.

This 3,200 acre park just outside of Calgary was established in 2006 and features more than 25 kilometres of pathways. Glenbow Ranch is a working ranch, which means that you can expect to run into cattle during your visit.

Bonus: the Glenbow Ranch Park Foundation has developed plant and wildlife checklists that visitors can complete to help track the prevalence of species in the park. Find them here.

Dog Friendly: yes, but be sure to make sure dogs are kept on leash at all times, as there are cattle in the area.

Nose Hill Park, named for its apparent nose-like appearance from certain angles, covers 11 square kilometres in Calgary’s northwest. Perched high above the city, Nose Hill Park provides a perfect vantage point to view the city skyline. Trails wind through treed areas and meander through wide open expanses.

Dog friendly: yes, but coyotes and porcupines live in the area, so be sure to keep dogs on their leash at all times, though there are designated off-leash areas.

A bird watcher’s dream, this park in the city’s southwest lies at the mouth of the Elbow River. Wander through the trails that wind through the white spruce forest. Be sure to come prepared, as black bears have been spotted in the area.

Dog Friendly: yes, but be sure to make sure dogs are kept on leash at all times, as you may encounter wildlife.

One of the most critical components to a successful rehabilitation and release of a wild animal in AWIC’s care is the enclosures we keep them in.

When a patient is admitted, they are given a full examination by the vet and/or vet technicians on staff that day and usually placed in one of the smaller indoor enclosures.

Our indoor enclosures range in size similar to a dog or cat kennel, all the way to the size of a small den or bedroom. The reason they are placed here is to allow AIWC staff to monitor their health, things like their eating behaviour, indifference, and overall condition, before placing them in one of the larger, outdoor enclosure for conditioning before release.

Once patients are healthy and recovered enough to move to larger enclosures, they are placed in the appropriate outdoor enclosure for conditioning before being released back into the wild, usually in the same area they were found.

In the last year, AIWC was fortunate to receive funding to construct several new enclosures for our patients.

Through sponsorship by the Airdrie Rotary Club and Imperial Oil, we saw the construction of aerial insectivore enclosures, which are used for recovering bats, swallows and song birds. These enclosures housed several birds over the last season which were successfully released back into their natural habitats when they were fully recovered and ready.

Photo from inside aerial insectivore enclosure taken in February 2018. Song birds migrate south in the winter and are kept indoors if we have any in care during the winter. There are currently no patients in these enclosures.

Photo of a mountain bluebird in one of the outdoor insectivore enclosures taken in September of 2017.

Inter Pipeline Ltd. sponsored an outdoor waterfowl enclosure and an outdoor aquatic mammal enclosure. The waterfowl enclosure will be the final stage of rehabilitation for water birds such as ducks, geese, swans, coots, and others. The outdoor aquatic mammal enclosure will be used for beavers, otters, muskrats and others.

View from outside of the outdoor waterfowl, aquatic mammal and aerial insectivore enclosures (left to right).

View from inside the outdoor waterfowl enclosure. The facilities are currently incomplete but once they are ready, will have pools that allow the patients to dive and mimic activities they would do in the wild.

Shell Canada sponsored an enclosure for large mammals such as carnivorous mammals like foxes (photo not included in this blog).

AIWC is looking forward to seeing these new enclosures in use in the upcoming busy season!

We also have several older outdoor enclosures, such as the flight cage pictured below. The flight cage is used for large birds of prey to give them plenty of space to stretch their wings and get back into the air before being released.

View from outside the flight cage. The trees give a sense of how tall the flight cage is to allow birds of prey to take flight inside.

View from inside the flight cage. Several perches allow the patients to choose where they would like to rest between flights.

AIWC has been open for nearly 25 years and as the needs of our patients grows, we will need to expand to grow with them and upkeep existing facilities. We have several other older outdoor enclosures with different purposes that were not featured in this blog.

2017 was a big year for AIWC, with over 1,400 patients admitted to the centre for care.

As we have now transitioned into the second month 2018 (and our 25th year of being in operation) we thought we’d take this opportunity to look back and reflect on some of our favourite blog posts of 2017.

When the weather turns bitterly cold, there’s nothing better than finding a cozy spot and settling into a good book.

To get you through the rest of this cold spell, we’ve compiled a list of wildlife and nature-themed books that will chase away the winter doldrums!

The Inner Life of Animals by Peter Wohlleben

This book provides amazing insight into the emotions of the animals all around us. Did you know that ravens call their friends by name, and that rats regret bad choices? You’ll never look at an animal in the same way again.

If you grew up in Canada, chances are you had to read this book in grade school, but it’s a lovely read as an adult as well. While it’s not specifically about wildlife per se, it’s worth including on this list.

Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl by Stacey O’Brien

In 1985, biologist Stacey O’Brien adopted an injured barn owl who could not survive on his own. Filled with insight into the behaviour and intelligence of owls, this book profiles the relationship between Wesley the owl and O’Brien.

This stunning book examines the idea the forest is a social network and that trees communicate, support each other, and warn each other of impending danger. This book will forever change your future walks in the forest.

To be fair, this one isn’t exactly a book you can sit down and read, but it’s worth getting your hands on anyway. This colouring book is geared towards adults, and each page is filled with intricate, gorgeous drawings just begging to be filled in.